FBI found liable for Bulger, Flemmi

A federal judge found yesterday that the FBI's mishandling of longtime informants James ``Whitey" Bulger and Stephen ``The Rifleman" Flemmi caused the 1984 murder of Quincy fisherman John McIntyre and ordered the government to pay more than $3 million to McIntyre's mother and brother.

The decision, which marks the first ruling on a lawsuit brought against the government by victims of Bulger and Flemmi, raised the hopes of families who have similar suits pending and was hailed as a ``spectacular victory" for another family whose lawsuit was dismissed on grounds that it was filed too late.

``This represents finally some measure of vindication for all the families that were shut out of the judicial process by the government, to their great discredit, on claims somehow that the families were too late in pointing their finger at the FBI," said attorney Frank A. Libby Jr., who represents the family of Roger Wheeler, a Tulsa businessman whose 1981 murder was orchestrated by Bulger and Flemmi.

``Emily McIntyre achieved what the Wheelers tried to achieve all along, which was accountability," Libby said.

US District Judge Reginald C. Lindsay , who presided over an 18-day bench trial in June, ruled that former FBI agent John J. Connolly Jr. warned Bulger and Flemmi that McIntyre was cooperating against them, knowing the tip would likely lead to McIntyre's murder.

In a 110-page decision, Lindsay found that the FBI failed to properly supervise Connolly and failed to investigate numerous allegations that Bulger and Flemmi were involved in drug trafficking, murder, and other crimes over decades.

Even though the FBI investigated Bulger and Flemmi for four murders -- including Wheeler's -- in the early 1980s, Lindsay wrote, ``the truth is, however, that the FBI was not pounding the pavement looking for evidence that could `stick.' "

``Instead," wrote Lindsay, ``the FBI stuck its head in the sand when it came to the criminal activities of Bulger and Flemmi. The agents of the Boston office knew they had an obligation to report informants' criminal activity, so they carefully avoided knowledge of criminal acts by their informants."

The judge ordered the government to pay $3 million to McIntyre's mother for the conscious suffering he endured before his brutal slaying, $100,000 for the loss of her son's company, and $1,876 for funeral and burial costs.

``This places the legal responsibility for John McIntyre's death on the doorstep of the FBI and the US government," said New Hampshire attorney Steven M. Gordon , who represents McIntyre's mother and brother, Christopher.

Emily McIntyre, 77, of Quincy, said yesterday that she was thankful for the judge's ruling, but, ``I'm not satisfied yet, and I'm not talking about the money."

She said she wants Connolly, who is serving a 10-year prison term for racketeering, to be prosecuted for her son's murder.

Attorney William Christie, who also represents the McIntyres, said the family plans to ask a jury to decide additional claims in their lawsuit against Connolly and five other agents. The McIntyres were allowed only a bench trial on their claims against the government, but they are entitled to seek jury trials in the claims against the agents, which Christie said they intend to do.

The McIntyres' suit was the first of 17 filed against the government by families of victims of Bulger and Flemmi to go to trial. Ten were dismissed, mostly on grounds they were filed too late, and six are poised to go to trial.

``Those cases should be settled," said US Representative William Delahunt , a Quincy Democrat, accusing the Department of Justice of ``denigrating the American justice system" by continuing to fight the lawsuits and deny responsibility for murders that were committed by Bulger and Flemmi while they were FBI informants.

Boston attorney Edward Hinchey , who represents the family of Michael Donahue , an innocent bystander who was allegedly gunned down by Bulger in 1982, said, ``We're very hopeful that the government will come forward and admit the wrongdoing, admit their responsibility for the murders, and make these families whole and not force them to go through the trial like they did the McIntyre family."

Gina Talamona , a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, wouldn't comment yesterday on the decison or whether the government will appeal it. ``We're reviewing the decision and considering our options," she said.

Gail Marcinkiewicz , a spokeswoman for the FBI's Boston office, also declined to comment on the ruling, but said the FBI has made sweeping changes to its informant program ``to have better oversight of that program so these problems would not continue."

Flemmi, who is serving a life sentence for 10 murders, testified at trial that he and Bulger killed McIntyre Nov. 30, 1984, after Connolly warned them that McIntyre had implicated them in an unsuccessful plot to ship weapons to the Irish Republican Army aboard the Valhalla, a Gloucester trawler.

McIntyre, 32, was lured to a South Boston home, chained to a chair, grilled for hours, choked, and shot to death, according to Flemmi. His remains weren't discovered until January 2000.

The judge rejected the government's contention that Connolly was a rogue agent, who had pocketed $200,000 in payoffs from Bulger and Flemmi over two decades and wasn't acting in the scope of his duty as an FBI agent when he leaked information that led to McIntyre's murder.

Lindsay found that Connolly's superiors ``up the chain of command" approved using Bulger and Flemmi as informants, even when they were suspects in several investigations by the FBI and other agencies.

``For decades preceding the McIntyre murder, agents of the FBI protected Bulger and Flemmi as informants by shielding them from prosecution for crimes they had committed," Lindsay wrote.

Connolly was motivated by greed, friendship with Bulger and Flemmi, and a desire to promote the FBI goal of taking down La Cosa Nostra by getting information from Bulger and Flemmi about local Mafia leaders, Lindsay found.

But yesterday lawyer E. Peter Mullane, who represents Connolly in the civil suit filed by the McIntyres, said his client denies that he alerted Bulger and Flemmi that McIntyre was cooperating.

Connolly, who retired from the FBI in 1990, was convicted in 2002 of racketeering for protecting Bulger and Flemmi from prosecution and warning Bulger to flee just before Bulger's 1995 racketeering indictment.

Connolly, 66, is slated to stand trial in Miami in March on state murder charges for allegedly helping Bulger and Flemmi orchestrate a 1982 slaying in Florida.